Princeton arrived at Wagner College last night riding a five-game winning streak, and as the preseason favorite to win an Ivy League title for the first time since 2004.

Now we know why.

The 8-3 Tigers, who had defeated the likes of Tulsa, St. Joe’s and Siena in the current run, shot 54 percent from the floor and held Wagner to 2 of 7 from 3-point range in a 69-57 victory that was the Seahawks’ third loss in a row.

The bright spot for coach Dan Hurley’s 4-6 team was the breakout night of 6-foot-11 freshman center Naofall Folahan. A native of the Benin Republic in West Africa, the rangy Folahan led Wagner with a career-high 19 points, and blocked seven shots, one short of the school-record eight by Miladin Mutavdzic in an 89-88 triple-overtime loss to Fairleigh Dickinson in Wagner’s 1992 regular-season finale.

Folahan, who had been averaging 2.4 points and 14 minutes of playing time coming into last night, got 31 minutes against the Tigers and finished with five rebounds and a pair of assists to go along with the scoring and intimidating presence at the defensive end.

“I’m excited for the future when I see Naofall play like that this early in his career,” Hurley said of the 20-year-old, who has just five years playing experience. “To get that out of him against a team of Princeton’s caliber, a big, physical group, that’s what we were hoping for when we brought him to Wagner.”

But on a night when it would take until midway through the second half for a Wagner player other than Folahan to knock down more than one field goal and even longer than that for the Seahawks to break the 40-point mark, the game seemed clearly out of reach from halftime on.

Wagner actually held a four-point lead nine minutes in following a pair of steals, the second a Josh Thompson strip of Princeton’s Patrick Saunders that ended with a jam that made it 15-11 Seahawks.

But the Tigers never lost their poise.

Fourth-year head coach Sydney Johnson’s club responded by turning up the defensive heat and forcing six Wagner turnovers over the next eight minutes.

The Seahawks unraveled just enough to open the door, and Princeton, 22-9 last year with virtually the same group of players, pushed through to the tune of a 24-5 run.

A couple of Wagner timeouts didn’t do much to slow the spurt and Princeton led at the half, 36-24.

And the Tigers, who got 23 points off the bench from Kareem Maddox, extended that edge to 42-24 to begin the second half.

Wagner would cut the lead back to 58-49 with 5:56 to go on a Tyler Murray 3-pointer.

But the Seahawks would get no closer, as Princeton put four scorers in double figures and outrebounded Wagner 32-23.

“They are a very good team,” said Hurley, “and we didn’t play very well. Our shot selection was poor. We turned the ball over 12 times in the first half against a team that wasn’t pressing us, and our efficiency level in every area was low.”

The turnover situation has hurt Wagner badly in the last two losses.

When the Seahawks fell 51-50 to St. Peter’s last week, they turned the ball over 20 times.

One reason for the high number of miscues is the lack of a pure point guard.

Kenny Ortiz, the only Wagner player who fits that description, is currently sitting out his transfer year.

“Because we don’t have one guy to get the ball to, one guy to get us into our offense, our perimeter guys are struggling with their identity,” said Hurley. “They become uncomfortable when teams make adjustments against us.”

What’s the remedy?

Not much, for right now.

“We’re learning lessons that will play dividends down the line,” said Hurley. “Unfortunately, they can be painful right now.”

NOTES: Wagner travels to Texas A&M to face the 25th-ranked Aggies (9-1) Tuesday. Wagner is 0-6 all-time vs. current Big 12 members ... Folahan has 20 blocks in 10 games ... Latif Rivers had 14 for Wagner, all in the second half ... Wagner has lost five in a row to Ivy League opponents ... Coming into last night, when they were 21-for-25 from the line, the Seahawks were ranked sixth in the nation in free-throw accuracy (78.7 percent).